WSJから

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  ウォール・ストリート・ジャーナル（ＷＳＪ）に掲載された世界のトップ企業の経営者とのインタビュー記事から、ビジネスシーンでよく使われる英会話表現をピックアップ。「ポイント解説」では言い換え表現なども紹介し、実際に「使える」ビジネス英会話の習得を目指す。「Charting Accenture's Course」から


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  ＜使える表現 １＞budget flush　「予算使い切りのための駆け込み需要の急増」


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  ●例文It's an interesting time of the year because with tech spending, sometimes there's a budget flush at the end of the year.「年度末にあたる今の時期は、ＩＴ予算使い切りのための駆け込み需要が急増することがよくある」


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  ●ポイント解説budgetは「予算」、flushは「ほとばしり」という意味。ここでは「予算使い切りのための駆け込み需要が急増」の意訳になる。なお、「駆け込み需要」には、rush demand、あるいはsurge in ～「～がドッと押し寄せる、～の急増→～の駆け込み需要」などの表現もある。例えば、surge in power demand/ consumer spending 「電力需要の急増／消費者支出の急増」のように使う。


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  ＜使える表現 ２＞upturn　「景気の上昇／好転」downturn　「景気の悪化→不況」 ●例文・In an upturn people are looking at customer acquisition, improving customer service models, [and other] investments. When you have a downturn, people look at how to improve the cost performance of everything.「企業は、景気がいいときは新規顧客の開拓や顧客サービスの向上その他に投資を行うが、景気が悪くなると、あらゆることに関して費用対効果の見直しを始める」


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  ・When they come out of the downturns, we're the place they come because we never left their side.「その結果、不況から脱出したときに彼らが頼りにしてくれたのは、彼らを決して見限らなかったわれわれだった」


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  ●ポイント解説upturnは「（景気などの）上昇」、downturnは「（景気などの）悪化、沈滞」という意味。なお、いずれも可算名詞なので、単数・複数がある。 ＜使える表現 ３＞rationalizing 「合理化」streamlining 「合理化、効率化」 ●例文A lot of the work we're doing right now is around rationalizing and streamlining.「当社が現在手がけている仕事の多くは合理化や効率化にまつわるものだ」


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  ●ポイント解説rationalizingは動詞rationalize「合理化する」、streamliningは動詞streamline「（仕事・組織などを）合理化／効率化／簡素化する」の名詞形。類似表現に、downsizing「（大幅な）人員削減、リストラ」がある。ちなみに、around ～は「～を中心として、～を巡って→～にまつわる」という意味の前置詞。


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  ＜使える表現 ４＞unfold 　「展開する」


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  ●例文We'll see how 2010 unfolds.「2010年がどう展開していくか様子見といったところだ」 ●ポイント解説unfoldは「（物語などが）展開する」という意味。例えば、We watched the debate unfold on TV「討論が展開されるのをテレビで観た」のように使う。will see ～は「～の様子を見る」という意味。なお、We’ll seeのみの場合、「さあ、どうなるかな」という意味になる。また、You’ll seeのみの場合だと「今にわかるでしょう／まあ、見ていてください」。


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  日本語訳


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  http://jp.wsj.com/Business-Companies/node_6686


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  Bill Green, the chairman and chief executive of Accenture PLC, finds he has fewer friends these days.


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  The world's largest standalone consulting company by revenue has seen long-time partners, such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Xerox Corp., spend billions of dollars to buy up Accenture competitors in the past 18 months. Accenture CEO Bill Green says some hardware makers are 'just trying to find growth' by buying services firms. That leaves Accenture, whose 177,000 employees resell and install computer hardware and software in addition to providing strategic consulting, with fewer independent partners at a time that the recession has slowed corporate demand for its services.


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  Mr. Green was part of the executive team that spun Accenture, then Andersen Consulting, out of Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative and took the company public in 2001. Formerly a partnership, the current company has a traditional corporate structure and this summer moved its incorporation from Bermuda to Ireland. A 56-year-old Massachusetts native, who joined the company in 1977 fresh from business school and became CEO in 2004, Mr. Green said he was "surprised" by the recession's severity. In August, he laid off about 7% of his senior executives—more than 300 people—and consolidated some of Accenture's 200-plus offices.


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  Mr. Green is now reorganizing Accenture—such as by seeking out new hires with experience working in different fields—which he thinks will help win more business. In an interview, he discussed how he's guiding the firm through the recession and the industry's shifting allegiances. Excerpts:


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  WSJ: Is technology spending coming back?


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  Mr. Green: It's starting to come back. It's an interesting time of the year because with tech spending, sometimes there's a budget flush at the end of the year. So you can't be confused by [the fourth quarter]. In an upturn people are looking at customer acquisition, improving customer service models, [and other] investments. When you have a downturn, people look at how to improve the cost performance of everything. A lot of the work we're doing right now is around rationalizing and streamlining. People have made major investments in technology and software and systems, and many times companies are disappointed with the results they got. We'll see how 2010 unfolds. Our plan right now is [to hire] about 37,000 people. We're also positioning to aggressively hire at the very senior level as well in specific skill categories.


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  WSJ: Dell, Xerox and H-P have bought services companies recently. What does this trend mean for Accenture?


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  Mr. Green: I think any product company that gets into the service business has to take a few deep breaths because the difference is night and day. [One] company is about products, the [other] company is about people. It is a very hard thing to do to get a product company culture and a service company culture to coexist. You're going to see some Hail Marys. You're going to see some companies that are just trying to find growth. And so the natural thing to do is, "Oh, let's go into services."


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  WSJ: These companies are going to tell customers that if they buy the consulting services, they will get a discount on hardware too. How will you compete against that kind of bundled sale?


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  Mr. Green: It's hard to compete with the bundle on the surface, but customers are smart. They get that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. We have much of our compensation tied to the results that we generate on behalf of the companies. Nobody else in this business works that way.


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  WSJ: What are the things you did right guiding the company through this recession?


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  Mr. Green: We operate the company with one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow. So the foot in today was driving our business in 2009 for the best economic results. The foot in tomorrow was [realizing] that business is going to come back. There's an opportunity to put distance between ourselves and our competitors by investing. We launched an initiative called Accenture Interactive, which is [Internet] marketing. If you think about the developing economies of the world, how do you reach them to sell your products and services? More and more marketing is going to be done through the Internet. The second thing we did is we combined our public service and our health services business. Everywhere around the world, health service and public service in all the other countries is very much married up. Only in the U.S. is it not. So we created a new operating unit to go after that market, which we think will grow two or three times faster than many of the other markets that we operate in.


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  WSJ: What did you do wrong over the last year?


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  Mr. Green: In December, we were still projecting growth consistent with our range. All the facts pointed to that. The world changed when we went into calendar 2009. People just stopped initiating anything. Frankly, I thought we responded pretty well. I do think we could have done more investing for the future than we did. There was time to do something bold, to move into entire new business areas. We did a lot of analysis on that, but we probably didn't lunge at it as fast as we should, because you're always trying to balance the short term and the long term.


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  WSJ: What are you doing to navigate the company now?


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  Mr. Green: For the last year, it's about retaining customers. I ran our telecom business during the telecom meltdown in 2000 and 2001. We never left their side, even when they didn't have money to spend, we stuck with them. When they come out of the downturns, we're the place they come because we never left their side. The first thing is making sure that our offerings are aligned with things that generate the best economic output for clients.[Hot questions now are] how do I optimize global supply chains [and] how do I take the hundreds of millions of dollars I've invested in systems to get information and now turn it into insight?